


Bandages

by FreakishWhale



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: 'tattoo's, Fluff, James Potter - Freeform, M/M, Peter Pettigrew - Freeform, Soulmates, The Marauders Era, Words, literally just a tiny bit of cute, remus lupin - Freeform, sirius black - Freeform, wolfstar
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-06-22
Updated: 2015-06-22
Packaged: 2018-04-05 17:08:50
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,332
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4187997
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/FreakishWhale/pseuds/FreakishWhale
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>A world where everyone is born with the First Words their soulmate will ever speak to them inked onto their skin, to be kept hidden until they are spoken and burn black.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Bandages

Sirius Black had always hated his Words, inked in one of the most inconvenient places possible and not exactly the kind of First Words you want your future soulmate to say to you.

‘ _Please leave me alone, I’m busy._ ’ was inked onto the bottom of his right ring finger, running down and over his palm in a curved, wave like pattern. Sirius had always thought it would be quite beautiful, had the Words themselves been much less ugly. His Words placement meant that Sirius always had to be very careful with his hands; he kept an old, tattered bandage wrapped around his palm to hide the majority of the unfortunate lettering, leaving only _‘Ple’_ visible, peaking out the edge of the bandaging, and only if one was to look very closely. Sirius’ parents had always abhorred his use of the bandage to hide his Words, telling him that it was “utterly repulsive and should not be worn”

As usual, Sirius picked at the edges of the already frayed bandage as he stepped onto the train that would take him away from his home and to Hogwarts, where he would complete his schooling. He knew a few of the many faces that he passed, the ones with old wizarding names that he had been forced into growing up with; some even gave him half-smiles as he passed before returning to their real friends.

Without much of a clue as to what he was doing and just wanting to get away from the much louder older years, he pulled open the door to a compartment and smiled at its occupants. A young boy, not much taller than himself, wearing rounded glasses and the messiest mop of black hair he’d ever seen; a short, round boy who was curled into himself in the corner, looking like he’d rather be anywhere else and a scrawny boy with his nose buried in a book and his feet tucked under himself.

“Hello,” Sirius began, running his bandaged hand through his matted, overly-long hair, “Can I sit in here?” he asked, directing the question at the boy in glasses, as he seemed to be the only one who wanted to talk.

The boy nodded vigorously, waving a hand to indicate the empty seat opposite him. Sirius stepped into the compartment, closing the door tentatively behind him and taking a seat beside the reading boy. “I’m Sirius, um… Sirius Black.” He grinned at the boy opposite him and sat on his hands, a nervous habit that he’d developed from his parent’s constant disapproval of his bandages.

“I’m James Potter.” The boy replied, sticking out a hand for Sirius to shake. “Hey, what’s that bandage for?” James asked, grabbing hold of Sirius’ wrist before he could retract it.

“Stop!” Sirius shrieked, snatching his hand away and fixing the bandages that James had disrupted, “They cover my Words.” He smiled sheepishly and the boys’ face filled with understanding.

“Oh, sorry. I didn’t know.” James shrugged half-heartedly, “Mine are nice, they’re on my hip so no one sees them.” He nodded to himself and sat back to relax.

Sirius turned to the boy beside him, nose still buried deep inside his book, he opened his mouth to speak but was quickly silenced.

“Please leave me alone, I’m busy.” He snapped, pushing his book slightly further from his face to address Sirius. Sirius was glad he had sat on his hand again, he was sure that if he hadn’t he would be cradling it against his chest, whimpering in pain.

It started slowly, like he’d always been told it would, starting from the end and working backwards, a small heat began to cover his palm, quickly latching onto the Words and clamping down. His Words burned at impossible temperatures, bringing tears to his eyes and blackness to his vision. When he looked at his Words that evening, he would see that they had been burned a deep black, rather than the usual faded white of unspoken Words.

Panic began to rise in his chest and his breathing became shallow, it couldn’t be this boy beside him, not this _boy_. Sirius’ parents would kill him. His soulmate couldn’t be a boy, that wasn’t how it went in old families. No, Sirius was going to have to pretend this never happened, maybe if he wished it away hard enough his Words would disappear altogether. He’d heard of people who were born with no Words, or whose Words disappeared within their first few days, maybe he could pretend that his had disappeared a little late.

“Oh no, no… This can’t be happening.” He whispered to himself, his whole body shaking slightly. The young boy – his _soulmate_ – must have felt him vibrating because he folded the corner of his page and turned to face Sirius.

“I’m sorry, that was rude.” He gave a shy smile, “I’m Remus. It’s good to meet you.” He stuck a hand out for Sirius to shake and instinctively Sirius pried his burning hand from under his leg to take hold of Remus’. “Ouch!” The boy screeched, recoiling away from Sirius’ touch. “Are you okay? Your hand is boiling hot.” Sirius’ eyes widened, he didn’t realise other people could feel the heat in his hand too. He gave a shaky nod and turned to face the compartment door.

“Sirius?” James asked, leaning forward again, suddenly much more interested now that Sirius looked like he was about to lose his breakfast. Sirius shook his head slightly in response, afraid to open his mouth.

“I think we should get someone.” The round boy in the corner offered, uncurling slightly and trying to get involved.

“I’ll go, you guys make sure he’s okay.” James rose quickly and darted out of the compartment before Sirius could stop him.

Remus reached a tentative hand towards Sirius, placing his it on his leg and sighing in relief, “Your leg isn’t hot, that’s good. What about the rest of you?” Remus began touching parts of Sirius’ body at random, attempting to find any trace of heat.

 _Oh crap, oh crap, oh crap._ Sirius’ mind was racing. He lashed out and arm to stop Remus, grabbing hold of him before he could grope Sirius’ person anymore.

“Don’t touch me!” He screamed without thinking, his whole body froze and he dropped Remus’ arm just in time to see him flinch and throw himself away.

Remus reached a hand up behind his left ear and pressed down, his face contorting in pain. “Oh my god, Sirius!” he cried, closing his eyes and pressing himself into the corner of the compartment.

Sirius could see the pain slowly subsiding as Remus began to relax again. The two boys stared at each other for a moment before they both began laughing. “I always hated my Words so much,” Remus commented, “But that was bloody brilliant!” The boys were sent into a fit of laughter once more, whilst the round boy sat bewildered in the corner, not quite sure what to make of the scene in front of him.

“Hey, Peter?” Remus asked after catching his breath, the round boy –now named Peter, apparently – lifted his head and began twiddling his thumbs, not quite looking Remus in the eyes, “Don’t tell anyone about this, okay?” Peter nodded and sunk back into the corner to continue being silent and unnoticed.

James returned a moment later, a plethora of people on his tail, “Wait, what?” he questioned, furrowing his brow and the now seemingly healthy Sirius and the grins on the two boys’ faces.

Sirius shrugged and turned to talk with Remus. If he was his soulmate, Sirius decided, he might as well get to know him a bit better.

James stared at them for a moment, shaking his head. He would ask about it later, but it wouldn’t be until 4th year, when the four boys were drunk out of their minds on Firewhiskey, that he would finally find out what happened that fateful day in the train compartment.

**Author's Note:**

> Excuse the awfulness, this is the frist thing I've written in quite a while and the first thing I'm posting on here. 
> 
> My Tumblr is: freakishwhael.tumblr.com if you want to contact me
> 
> For future works (a lot happening right now) I need a beta or two, so if anyone's interested, contact me here or on my Tumblr.


End file.
